Mauresmo first attained the top ranking on 13 September 2004, holding it for five weeks on that occasion. She was the fifteenth World No. 1 in women's tennis since the computer rankings began. She is well known for her powerful one-handed backhand and strong net play. She officially announced her retirement from professional tennis on 3 December 2009, ending a career of fifteen years. She returned to Wimbledon in 2010, acting as a grass court advisor for Frenchman and 2007 Wimbledon doubles champion Michaël Llodra. She helped Marion Bartoli in 2013 and during Bartoli's triumph at Wimbledon.

Mauresmo was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye slightly northwest of Paris. She began playing tennis at the age of four, after being inspired by Yannick Noah's win in the 1983 French Open on television. It was after his win that Mauresmo's parents bought her her first tennis racket. Later on in 1998 Yannick Noah picked her on the French team for the Fed Cup. Her mother Françoise is a housewife and her father Francis, who died in March 2004, was an engineer. She has a brother, Fabien, who is an engineer.

The unseeded Mauresmo reached the Australian Open final in 1999 with wins over three seeded players, including world no. 1 Lindsay Davenport, before falling to world no. 2 Martina Hingis. Mauresmo was only the second Frenchwoman ever to reach the Australian Open final; (Mary Pierce was the first, winning the championship in 1995). She was only the third Frenchwoman to reach any Grand Slam final during the Open Era.

Mauresmo defeated Hingis later in the year, en route to the final of the Paris indoor event.

After the defeat of Davenport at the Australian Open, Mauresmo, 19 at the time, came out as lesbian to the international press.[1] She "attributed her success on the court to coming to terms with her sexuality and finding love."[1] She also endured homophobic taunts from fellow competitors, whom she later went on to defeat.[1]

Mauresmo won a silver medal in singles at the Olympic Games in Athens, where she was defeated by Belgian Justine Henin in the final.

On 13 September 2004, Mauresmo became the first French tennis player to become world no. 1 since the computer rankings began in the 1970s. She held that ranking for five weeks and was the second woman, after Kim Clijsters, to have attained the top spot without having won a Grand Slam title.

At the French Open, seeded third, Mauresmo was upset in the third round by the then little-known 17-year-old Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in three sets.[2] Mauresmo had, at the Australian Open earlier in the year, become the first player to defeat the Serb in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, winning in straight sets also in the third round.[3]

At the Australian Open, Mauresmo captured her first Grand Slam singles title, defeating Belgian former world no. 1 players Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin en route. Both opponents retired from their respective matches, Clijsters with a right ankle sprain in the third set of their semifinal and Henin from gastroenteritis in the final. Mauresmo was leading in both matches at the time of the retirements, by 6–1, 2–0 against Henin.

At the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Mauresmo defeated Martina Hingis in a semifinal, 6–2, 6–2, but lost to Nadia Petrova in the final. Had she won the final, she would have immediately regained the world no. 1 ranking from Clijsters. Nonetheless, the outcome was sufficient to ensure Mauresmo's return to the world no. 1 ranking on 20 March 2006.

Mauresmo was the top seed at Wimbledon. She defeated Anastasia Myskina in a quarterfinal and Maria Sharapova in a semifinal, and then came back from one set down to defeat Henin in the final 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. The victory was Mauresmo's second Grand Slam singles title and the first on grass. She was also the first Frenchwoman since Suzanne Lenglen to win Wimbledon.

She then pulled out of the Fed Cup World Group I playoff tie against the Czech Republic due to a groin injury sustained during Wimbledon. She also withdrew from the Rogers Cup in Montreal.

At the US Open, Mauresmo lost to Sharapova in the semifinals 0–6, 6–4, 0–6. This was the first time in the open era that a female had lost two sets at love in a US Open semifinal.[4]

Mauresmo then reached the final of the China Open, losing to Kuznetsova. During the tournament, Mauresmo won 137 ranking points to help preserve her world no. 1 ranking and ended a nine-match losing streak to Davenport stretching back to January 2000 in Sydney.

To conclude the year, Mauresmo reached the final of the WTA Tour Championships in Madrid, losing to Henin, 4–6, 3–6. Mauresmo finished the year ranked world no. 3, behind Henin and Sharapova.

Mauresmo's next tournament was the Open Gaz de France, where she lost in the semifinals to Nadia Petrova, 7–5, 4–6, 6–7(7), after Mauresmo led 4–1 in the final set and had a match point in the tiebreak. This was Mauresmo's third loss in the last four matches with Petrova. In her next tournament at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, Belgium, Mauresmo defeated Kim Clijsters in the final. This was Mauresmo's third consecutive title there, earning her the diamond-encrusted racquet that comes with winning the title at least three times in five years. The trophy cost US$1.3 million. Mauresmo then played the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open, where she lost to Justine Henin in the final.

After losing to Henin in the final of the International Women's Open in Eastbourne, 5–7, 7–6(4), 6–7(2), after being up 4–1 in the deciding set, defending champion Mauresmo went into Wimbledon saying that she was ready to win another major title. However, she lost her fourth round match against Czech teen Nicole Vaidišová, 6–7(6), 6–4, 1–6. The loss dropped her to world no. 6, her first time outside the top five since November 2003.

Mauresmo withdrew from the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, the US Open, because of a lack of fitness.

At Wimbledon, Mauresmo lost in the third round to two-time former champion Serena Williams, 6–7(5), 1–6. Hampered by a thigh injury, Mauresmo trailed 5–0 in the second set before breaking Williams's serve, only to be broken herself in the next game and lose the match. Mauresmo said after the match, "I was not 100% in my movement but overall I thought there were some good moments in the first set. But I really started to feel the injury in the tiebreak, and I'm not going to talk about the second set."[5]

Mauresmo, after a two-month hiatus from tennis due to a thigh injury sustained at Wimbledon, lost in the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati, Ohio to Nathalie Dechy, 4–6, 6–3, 2–6. After the match, Mauresmo, sounding optimistic about her chances at the upcoming US Open, said "I got four matches in this week, which is what I was looking for. It would have been great to play five but I'll go to New Haven (Connecticut) hoping to find a little more rhythm and build up to the US Open."[7] Mauresmo then lost in the semifinals of the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament (in New Haven) to top-seeded Chakvetadze 6–3, 3–6, 6–1. At the US Open, Mauresmo lost in the fourth round to 16th-seeded Flavia Pennetta 6–3, 6–0.

On 29 September, Mauresmo announced that she would split from her long-time coach, Loic Courteau.[8]

Mauresmo lost in the first round at Tokyo and Beijing, both times in long three-set defeats by Dominika Cibulková. She reached the second round in Moscow, falling to Dinara Safina, 7–6(2), 4–6, 4–6, and fell in the first round at Zurich to Belarusian teenager Victoria Azarenka.

She ended her year with a quarterfinal result at Luxembourg, losing to eventual champion Elena Dementieva. Mauresmo ended the year ranked world no. 24, with a singles record of 32–19.

At the Brisbane International tournament, Mauresmo defeated world no. 177 Jelena Dokić in the first round, 7–6(9), 7–6(5), before defeating French compatriot Julie Coin in the second round, 5–7, 6–2, 7–6(11) in 3 hours, 14 minutes. The fifth-seeded Mauresmo then defeated top-seeded Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals, 6–3, 6–2, before retiring in her semifinal match against third-seeded Frenchwoman, Marion Bartoli, while trailing 0–4 in the first set. At the Australian Open, Mauresmo lost in the third round to Victoria Azarenka.

Mauresmo announced at a press conference on 8 October 2009 that she was considering retiring from tennis. On 3 December 2009, she officially announced her retirement from tennis at a press conference in Paris.[10] She ended her career ranked World No. 21.[11]

In June and July 2010, Mauresmo temporarily coached fellow French player Michaël Llodra during the grass season. On 7 November, Mauresmo ran her first marathon at the 2010 New York City Marathon, finishing 3hr: 40m: 20s.

At the 2011 French Open, Mauresmo was set to be reunited with Llodra, making her professional return in the mixed doubles competition, but was disqualified before competing, as she had not re-registered for the anti-doping procedures required to compete on the tour.

In 2012 Amelie Mauresmo joined forces with 2012 Australian Open Champion and then-World No.1 Victoria Azarenka and her team as a support coach to help the Belarussian in defending her World No.1 ranking and launching an assault on the remaining three Grand Slams of 2012 and the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In 2013, Mauresmo started coaching French No. 1 Marion Bartoli, joining forces with her shortly before the 2013 Wimbledon Championships.[12] Under her tutelage, Bartoli would win her first Grand Slam title there without dropping a set (or even playing a tiebreak set), and credited her for her career revival (entering these Championships, Bartoli had yet to even reach a semi-final in 2013).[13]

Although Mauresmo had been one of the top singles players for several years, she did not have success in winning Grand Slam tournaments until 2006. Her talents were never questioned, but Mauresmo was criticized for her mental strength after succumbing to nerves in those events. In consecutive Wimbledon semifinals, she lost to Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport after leading comfortably. Before her 2006 Australian Open title, Mauresmo was often touted as "the greatest women's player never to win a Grand Slam."[16] After winning the 2006 Wimbledon title, Mauresmo openly joked, "I don’t want anyone to talk about my nerves any more."

Mauresmo is one of the few tennis players, male or female, to have reached the top ranking without first winning a Grand Slam singles title. Other players who had done so were Belgian Kim Clijsters, who ascended to the top spot in 2003, two years before winning her first Grand Slam singles title at the 2005 U.S. Open; Ivan Lendl, who first reached world no. 1 in 1983, before winning any of his eight Grand Slam singles titles; Marcelo Ríos of Chile, who reached world no. 1 in 1998 but never won a Grand Slam singles title; Jelena Janković of Serbia who reached world no. 1 in 2008; Dinara Safina, who reached World No. 1 in 2009 without winning a Grand Slam singles title; and Caroline Wozniacki, who reached world no. 1 in 2010.